On this day: 15 July

Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome.

First Jewish–Roman War: Titus and his armies breach the walls of Jerusalem. (17th of Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar).

First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.

The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.

Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.

The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, the decisive engagement of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.

Muhammad XI is crowned the twenty-second and last Nasrid king of Granada.

The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku.

Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

French Revolution: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.

French soldiers at Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid, uncovered the Rosetta Stone, which was essential in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.

Pike Expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.

A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.

The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.

Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

The Great Powers of Europe conclude the convention of London in order to stabilise the Near East.

American Civil War: The CSS Arkansas, the most effective ironclad on the Mississippi River, battles with Union Navy ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut, severely damaging three ships and sustaining heavy damage herself.

Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

Aftermath of World War I: The Parliament of Poland establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.

The Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.

The all-female Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed in the Soviet Union's First Polish Army.

The Boeing 367-80, the prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series, takes its first flight.

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

The United Red Army is founded in Japan.

In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing Makarios III and installing Nikos Sampson as the president of Cyprus.

Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was the last launch of both an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".

Sega's first home video game console, the SG-1000 (pictured), was released in Japan.

AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

Twitter, later one of the largest social media platforms in the world, is launched.

A .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}Mw 7.8 earthquake struck a remote region of Fiordland, New Zealand, the country's largest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

Space Shuttle program: Endeavour is launched on STS-127 to complete assembly of the International Space Station's Kibō module.

South Korean rapper Psy (pictured) released his hit single "Gangnam Style".

The Peace at Home Council, a faction of the Turkish Armed Forces, staged a coup d'état attempt against the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Croatian Mario Mandžukić scored the first own goal in a FIFA World Cup final in their defeat to France.